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SPEECH 



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HON. RUSSELL SAGK, 

OF NEW YORK, 



V, PROFESSIONS AND ACTS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
UNITED STATES ; THE REPEAL OF THE 
MISSOURI COMPROMISE; 



k 



OUTRAGES IN KANSAS; 



THE SECTIONAL INFLUENCE AND AGGRESSIONS OF THE 
SLAA'E POWER. 



OHLIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AUGUST 6, ISriB. 



WASHINGTON: 
1856. 






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SPEECH 



Mr. Chairman : When I took my seat here in December, 1853, I found a new adminis- 
tration in power, having been elected by one of the largest popular votes ever given to 
any previous one. It had over two-thirds of its friends in the Senate and in this House. 
It received this power by professions and pledges of adherence to the compromises of the 
past, and opposition to the agitation of the question of slavery in the future. The coun- 
try was in an unprecedented state of prosperity. Our foreign and domestic affairs were 
of the most pacific character ; but in less than two months a change commenced, and in- 
stead of peace and quiet reigning, as had been promised, the fire-brand of slaver j' and 
sectionalism was introduced into the Senate of the United States by the senator from Illi- 
nois, (Mr. Douglas;) and the unfortunate bitter and sectional results that have followed it, 
is the subject which I propose to disciiss during the time allotted to me this evening, in 
the following order, namely : 

ITS CAUSES.— ITS OBJECTS.— ITS EESULTS.— ITS INFLUENCE AND EEMEDY. 

First, its cause was owing to the departure of the professions and pledges made prior 
to and at the commencement of the present administration. It is a historical fact, that 
during the long and exciting session of the Congress of 1850. certain senators and repre- 
sentatives then in Congress got rip a Congressional pledge, for the purpose of forever 
stopping the agitation of the subject of slavery, and of saving the Union, and that the 
present administration came into power on the professions and pledge of adherence to and 
support of this Congressional pledge, and the compromise rAeasures of 1850 

Mr. Chairman : In order that we may fully realize the fidelity of this administration in 
its professions and pledges I beg to read this memorable document, that the country may 
judge of the difference between professions and acts : 

DECLAKATION AND PLEDGE. 

" The undersigned, members of the thirty-first Congress of the United States, believing 
that a renewal of sectional controversy upon the subject of slavery would be both dangerous 
to the Union and destntciive to its objects, and seeing no mode by which such controversies can be 
avoided, except by a strict adherence to the settlement thereof, effected by the compromise 
passed at the last session of Congress, do hereby declare their intention to maintain the same 
settlement inviolate, and to resist all attempts to repeal or alter the acts aforesaid, unless 
by general consent of the friends of the measure, and to remedy such evils, if any, as tim& 
and experience may develop. And for the purjwse of making this resolution effective, 
they further declare that they will not support for the oflice of President or Vice President, 
or of senator or of representative in Congress, or as member of a. State legislature, any man, 
of whatever party, who is not known to be opposed to the disturbance of the sentiment 
aforesaid, and to the renewal, in any form, of agitation upon the subject of slavery here- 
after. 

" Henry Clay, Howell Cobb, 

- C. S. Morehead, H. S. Foote, 

Kobert L. Rose, William Duer, 

William C. Dawson, James Brooks, 

Thomas J. Eusk, A. H. Stephens, 

Jeremiah Clemens, E. Toombs, 

James Cooper, M. P. Gentry, 

Thomas G. Pratt, H. W. Hilliard, 

William M. Gwinn, F. G-. McLean, 

Samuel A. Elliott. A. G. Watkins, 

David Outlaw, ' "" H. A. Bullard, 

C. H. Williams, T. S. Hamond, 
J. Phelps Phoenix, A. H. Sheppard, 
A. U. Schermerhorn, Edmund Deberry, 
John E. Thurman, H. Marshall, 

D. A. Bokee, • Daniel Breck, 
George E. Andrews, James L. Johnson, 
W. P. Mangum, J. B. Thompson, 
Jeremiah Morton, J. M. Anderson, 

E. J. Bowie, John B. Kerr, 
E. C. Cabell, J. P. Caldwell, 
Alexander Evans. Allen F. Owen. " 



4 

Now, sir, remember the distinguished men who signed it, the phraseology used, and 
the warning made in it, ' ' that a reneival of sectional controversy upon the subject of slavery would 
be both dangeroim to the Union and destrticiive to Us objects ; and yet, Mr. Chairman, before the 
short space of four years has elapsed, some of the very men who had signed this celebrated 
pledge were open and violent in denouncing the North, and urging the passage of the 
Kansas and Nebraska bill, repealing the Missouri compromise act. 

But, sir, before I speak more specifically respecting the repeal of this time-honored act, 
I wish to call attention to the declaration of the President cf the United States, as 
contained in his first annual message to Congress in Decemlier, 1858, in which he sa3's : 
"It is no part of my purpose to give prominence to any subject which may properly be 
regarded as set at rest by the deliberate judgment of the people. But while the present 
is bright with promise, and the future full of demand and inducement for tlie exercise of 
active intelligence, the past can never be without useful lessons of admonition and in- 
struction. If its dangers serve not as beacons, they will evidently fail to fulfil the ob- 
ject of a wise design. When the grave shall have closed m>er all who are noic endeavoring to meet the 
obligations of duty, the year 1850 xcill be recurred to as a period fdled icith anxious apprehension. A 
successful ivar had just terminated ; peace brought with it a vast augmentation of territory; 
disturbing questions arose, bearing upon the domestic institutions of one portion of the 
confederacy, involving the constitutional rights of the States. But, notwithstanding 
differences of opinion and sentiment which then existed in relation to details and .specific 
provisions, the acquiescence of distinguished citizens, whose devotion to the Union can 
never be doubted, has given renewed vigor to our institutions, and i-estored a sense of 
repose and security to the i^ublic mind throughout the confederacy. That this rlposb is 

TO SUFFER NO SHOCK DURING MY OFFICIAL TKRM, IF I HAVE POWER TO AVERT IT, THOSE WHO 
PLACED ME HERE MAY BE ASSURED. ThERE IS NO CONDEMNATION WHICH THE VOICE OF FREEDOM 
WILL NOT PRONOUNCE UPON US, SHOULD WE PROVE FAITHLESS TO THIS OREAT TRUST." Oh! sir, 

if these patriotic declarations had been adhered to, how much of bitter sectionalism would 
have been averted ! how many peaceful and happy homes would have been saved ! how 
much of human suffering prevented! — and, Oh! sir, how many precious lives would have 
been saved. But, alas ! truth compels me to declare, that it was but a deceptive decla- 
tion — a figure of rhetoric. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, having shown what the professions of the leading men of the 
South were, and the present administration in particular, I proceed to consider the causes 
which have led to the present deplorable state of tluugs throughout the length and 
breadth of the country ; and I charge that it is owing to the violation of the declarations 
and pledges to which I have referred, in the re-opening of the slavery agitation in 1854-, 
by the repeal of the time-honored compact, known as the "Missouri Compromise Act," 
from which all of tlie present domestic troubles have arisen, and has well nigh seriously 
strained the stability of the Union. 

In January, 185-t. a bill was introduced into the United States Senate by the Senator 
from Illinois, [Mr. Do<uola6, ] providing for the organization of the Territories of Kansas 
and Nebraska, but it did not provide for the repeal of the Missouri restriction; consequent- 
ly it was recunimittcd to the Committee on Territories, and the wishes of the South com- 
plied with, and an outrage perpetrated towards the free North that will never be forgotten, 
even if it should ever be forgiven, because it was conceived in political bad faith and re- 
pudiation, and consummated by political intrigue, corruiition, and partisan rewards 
When tliis bill, establishing the Territorial governments of Kansas and Nebraska, was 
passed, it was enacted that they should, wlu'u admitted as States, be admitted, " with oi 
without slavery, as their constitution should provide." But this was not enough for thf 
slaveholding States, and therefore the Missouri compromise, which forbids slavery forevei 
north of 30'^ .30" north latitude ; that time-honored compact, that bill of repose for which 
the slaveholding States had received and secured forever their consideration ; that bill 
wliich was a SoutlKjrn measure, passed by Southern votes and claimed as a Southern vic- 
tory ; that bill which was forced by the South on the North. 

But, sir, altliough the North — wronged, as she felt herself to be, by its passage — re- 
spected it and ac(juiesce(l in it ; but the South, with their few dough-faced allies at tlu 
North, repealed it, after it had been santtioned fora period of over thirty years ; and this 
too, be it remembered, without there being a single jjctition j)resented to Congress askinL 
for it, wliile public meetings were held throughout the country denouncing the measure 
and thousands and tens and hundreds of thousands of citizens remonstrated, in the mos 
urgent manner, against its repeal ; but it wag all in vain ; and then came the novel cxpe 
riment of submitting the subject to the people who should come into the 'i'erritory. Thi 
was done to admit shivery into the Territory, which that compromise forbid, and if th> 
North ever submits to its introduction she will deserve to bear all the reproaches thattb 
South heaps upon her. But, of this I have no fear. While the people of the free State 
are not easily aroused at trilling things, yet, when repudiation of plighted faith stalk 



abroad, and the black flag of slavery hovers over the Territories once dedicated to free- 
dom by a solemn compact, and the thoughts of the oppression and degradation that fol- 
low in the train of this social and political curse, the free men of the free North, and free 
men from all climes, and all time to come, will arise and drive back the lawless invaders 
and their border ruffian army, and erect the star-spangled banner — that emblem of free- 
dom — where all men may go and partake of the benefits of our free institutions, as pro- 
vided for by our forefathers, and in accordance with the letter, spirit, and intent of the 
Missouri compromise act. Well, sir, this breach of fiiith in the repeal of the Missouri act 
was effected by making another plight of faith; that is, by providing that the settlers of 
Kansas " should be perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their 
own way." 

On the strength of this last clause, and relying on the fidelity of the government of the 
United States, many people from the diiferent States of the Union emigrated to and settled 
in Kansas ; and what has been the result ? Has the Executive or Congress kept their pro- 
mise and executed that law ? No, sir ; it has not been done ; the facts disclosed by the 
report of the special committee sent to Kansas establish the fact, that, of the 6, 331 votes 
cast in March, 1855, for the election of the Legislative Assembly of Kansas, 4, 921 of them 
were cast by armed bands of the inhabitants cf Missouri, who invaded Kansas for that pur- 
pose on thiit occasion ; that only 1,410 legal votes were cast, and a majority of those were 
for the free-State candidate, though most of the free-State voters were driven from the 
polls. This invasion extended to all the council districts, and to all the representative 
districts but one, and elected and controlled a large majority of both houses. The people 
in the Territory have not been left free, but have had their homes invaded and subjugated, 
and they are, and their institutions have been, controlled by the people of Missouri, the 
arms of that State have been used against the free-State emigrants going to Kansas, by 
the tyrannical laws passed by that Assembly, and more tyrannically enforced by the offi- 
cers by theui appointed. The President of the United States has aided to enforce these 
laws, passed by usurpation and fraud. The complaints and appeals of the people in said 
Territory have been made in vain ; their representations have been treated with indiffer- 
ence and neglect ; the property of the free-State people has been destroyed and stolen ; 
their buildings have been burnt ; their printing offices have been suppressed to prevent 
their making known the oppression, crimes, and atrocities under which they were sub- 
jected ; the people have been hunted out, they have been hung, they have been murdered ; 
their cattle killed in then- presence ; they have been warned out, one after another, to 
leave the Territory ; they have been driven out of the Territory, by violence, in large 
numbers. Yes, Mr. Chairman, you may find them fleeing from the midnight blaze of 
then- own dwellings. You may find their bones bleaching on the green fields of this new 
country. You may find them driven ofl' to a returnless distance from their country and 
their homes. You may find some of them here, at the capital of the nation, this very 
day, who have been indicted, by this mockery of justice in Kansas, for constructive trea- 
son, imploring the Executive and beseeching Congress to do something, so that they may 
be allowed to have a fair and impartial trial, by a change of place of trial to St. Louis, or 
any other place, except in Kansas, where there is not the first principle of justice admin- 
istered towards free-State men. They ask this, that they may be tried, and then return 
to their homes in Kansas. Well, sir, up to this time no measure, except in this House, 
has been instituted to ferret out the wrong under which the free-State people in Kansas 
liave suffei'cd, and, in my humble opinion, but for the sending out of the committee from 
this House, civil war would now be waging beyond the limits of the oppressed and out- 
raged infant Territory of Kansas, and more bloody scenes would have been enacted 
outside than in said Territory. Fortunately, however, for humanity's sake, a majority of 
this House were true to the great principle at the formation of this Republic, which was 
to establish Liberty and Equality. 

Mr. Chairman, the people of Kansas, thus oppressed and subjugated, have appealed to 
Congress for relief ; they have complained and struggled in vain. They liave done as the 
people of the Territory of Michigan and California had done before them ; that is, formed 
a State constitution, inviting all to participate therein, and presented the same to Con- 
gress for admission ; but all such attempts have but brought down on them the reproach 
of being traitors, and subvert ers of authority, and, in the language of the Senate's report '. 

"Abandoned to their oppressors, the free State people of Kansas have been pursued by 
them in the same spirit which made the invasion. The acts of said assembly have by 
their officers been made the color for all forms of political persecution and o}ipression. 
Indictments for constructive treasons and pretended nuisances deprive them of liberty and 
destroy their property. Under the form of sheriff's posse, armed bands of people from 
without the Territory prowl over it, and take and destroy property and lis'cs, and intimi- 
date and drive off the free State people. These people have thus, for several months past, 
been harassed and scattered, and any attempt at self-defence has been repressed by the 



6 

army of the United States, or been declared constructive treason, and treated accoi'dingly. 
The settlers have thus, in large numbers, been driven from their settlements, and from, 
the Territory. This is but a brief and feeble statement of the facts. A full picture df the 
public atrocities and private violence which have been committed with impunity upon 
the free-State people of Kansas, would excite and arouse the deepest sentiment of 
indignation. 

" It would seem to be demanded by a sense of common justice, and by what this nation 
owes as well to the cause of truth as to its own character and self-respect, that inquiry 
should be made, and usurpation be subdued, and the public faith be redeemed, by re- 
dressing all the wrongs produced by such means. This is not proposed, nor is the law of 
repose to be restored, or the constitution already formed to lie allowed. 

"But, instead of this, it is now proposed to consummate the whole hy leaving usurpa- 
tion in possession of its power, and provide no security for those they imprison, op])ress, 
and disperse, but provide that those now there, and tliose only, shall cletermiue the defini- 
tive condition of that Tcrritoi-y by now forming a State constitution. This is but to en- 
courage violence by rewarding it with success ; that any result of such an experiment will 
produce definitive national peace and satisfaction is to suppose the people of this country 
blind to the power of ordinary discernment, or lost to every sentiment of justice and 
humanity." 

This, Mr. Chairman, is a brief liistorical statement of the acts of outrage, violence, and 
crimes, that the poor unfortunate free-State people in Kansas have been compelled to 
submit to. 

Having thus spoken of the causes of the present crisis in domestic affairs, I proceed to 
consider the contemplated objects to be attained by the repeal of the "Missouri Compro- 
mise Act," which I believe to l)e the extension of nuji.vN slaa'ert into Kans.\s and Ne- 
braska. 

Down to the period of the commencement of the first Congress under General Taylor's 
administration, when a small number of representatives from the South, led by two rep- 
resentatives from Georgia, (Toombs and Stephens,) defeated the re-election of Hon. Eobert 
C. Winthrop as Speaker of this House, because he would not commit himself by a pledge 
on the subject of slavery such as no honorable man could give, the principles of the 
Missouri restriction had been voted for or approved of by most of the eminent and lead- 
ing statesmen at the South. Even President Polk had approved of it in the act organ- 
izing the Territory of Oregon. But from this period a new doctrine was proclaimed in 
behalf of the right of the slave power to extend slavery into any of the Territories of the 
United States, on the ground of its existence prior to the adoption of the constitution, 
and, therefore, it is claimed that slavery is not dependent upon or subject to any of the 
provisions of the constitution. Well, sir, this is a little ahead of any higher law that I 
know of. I believe we have power over the subject of slavery in the Territories. So 
thought and so acted the Congress in 1820, when the South passed the " Missouri Com- 
promise Act," and when Charles Pinckney wTote the following letter rejoicing over the 
result of its passage : 

"Congress Hall, March 2, 1820, 

" o o'clock at niffJil. 
"Dear Sir : I hasten to inform you that this moment we have carried the question to 
admit Missouri, and all Louisiana to the southward of 36° 30' free of the restriction of 
slavery, and give the South, in a short time, an addition of six, perhaps eight, members 
to the Senate of the United States. It is considered here by the slaveholding States as a 
great triumph. « <s o o o o o o o 

"AVitli respect, your obedient servant, 

' ' CHARLES PINCKNEY. ' ' 

So thought tlie Congress of 1784, wliose powers on this subject, under the articles of 
confederation, were no greater than tliose of Congress under" the Constitution, when 
Thomas Jefferson, Irom tlie committee appointed to prepare a plan for the temporary 
government of tlie Western territory, introduced the following resolutions, which were 
adopted : 

_ "That the settlers witliin the territory so to be purchased and offered for sale, shall, 
cither on their own petition, or on the order of Congress, receive autliority from them, 
witli appointments of time and place, for tlieir free males of full age to meet together for 
the purpose of establishing a temporary government, to adopt the constitution and laws 
(.f any one of tlicse States, so tliat such laws nevcrtlieless shall be subject to alteration by 
their ordinary legislature, and to erect, subject to a like alteration, counties or townships 
for the election of monibers for their legislature. 



"That such temporary government shall only continue m force in any State until it 
shall have acquired twenty thousand free inhabitants, when, giving due proof thereof to 
Congress, they shall receive from them authority, with a2:)pointments of time and place, 
to call a convention of representatives to establish a permanent constitution and govern- 
ment for themselves : Provided, That both the temporary and perma,nent governments be 
established on these principles as their basis : 

" 1. Tliat they shall forever remain a part of the United States of America. 

"2. That in their persons, property, and territory, they shall be subject to the govern- 
ment of the United States in Congress assembled, and to the articles of confederation in 
all those cases in which the original States shall be so subject. 

"3. That they shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts contracted or to be 
contracted, to be apportioned on them by Congress, according to the same common rule 
and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other States. 

"4. That their respective gOA^ernments shall be in republican forms, and shall admit 
no person to be a citizen who holds any hereditary title. 

"5. That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guitly." 

This, Mr. Chairman, was Thomas Jeiferson's view of the power of Congress over the 
subject of slavery in 1784, not only in the Territories, but in the States to be formed out 
of the Territories. So thought the Congress in 1787, when the ordinance of that date 
was adopted, excluding slavery from the Northwestern Territory. So tliought the Con- 
gress of 1789, under the constitution, who recognised and conlirmed the ordinance of 
1789, which was approved by George Washington. Sotliouglit the Congress of 1800, who 
passed an act establishing a Territorial government over the Territory of Indiana, which 
was approved by John Adams. So thought the Congress of 1805, in their act establish- 
ing a Territorial government over Michigan. So thought the Congress of 180'J in their 
act establishing a Territorial government over Illinois ; both of which last named acts were 
approved by Thomas Jefferson. So thought the Congress of 1834 in extending the juris- 
diction of Michigan over "Wisconsin and Iowa, which was approved by Andrew Jackson. 
So thought the Congresses of 183G and of 1838 in their acts establishing Territorial govern- 
ments over Wisconsin and Iowa, which were approved by Martin Van Buren. So thought 
the Congress of 1848 in their act establishing a Territorial government over Oregon, which 
was approved by James K. "Polk, Mr. Buclianan being a member of his Cabinet. So 
thought the Congress of 1853 in their act establisliing a Territorial government over the 
Territory of Washington, approved by Millard Fillmore. In all of the aforementioned 
acts the slavery restriction or proviso of 1787 was incorporated, and slavery expressly pro- 
hibited. So thought Mr. Webster in 1850 when he said " that these compromises (1850) 
comprehend every inch of territory not disposed of by previous legislation." So thought 
the comt in the case of Jones vs. Van Zant, 2 McLean's Reports, 596. The court says: 

"Slavery exists only by virtue of the laws of the States where it is sanctioned; 
and if a slave escape from such State to a free State, he h free according to the jmnnples of 
the common law ; and recapture in a free State is authorized only by the Constitution and 
act of Congress. There is no general principle in the law of nations which requires such 
surrender. ' ' 

So thought the court in deciding the celebrated case of Priggs vs. the State of Pcnr.syl- 
vania, 16 Peters, 540. The court lays down these propositions : 

"By the law of nations, no State is bound to recognise slavery in another State. It is 
a matter of comity, and not a matter of international- right. The state of slavery is 
deemed to lie a mere municipal regidation, founded uj.wn, and limited to, the range of the terri- 
rial laws." 

So thought ex-President Fillmore when he wrote tlio following letter : 

Buffalo, October 17, 1838. ' 

Sin : Your communication of the 13th instant, as chairman of the committee appointed 
by the "Anti-Slavery Society of the county of Erie," has just come to hand. You so- 
licit my answer to the following interrogatories : 

I. Do you believe that petitions to Congress on tiie subject of slavery and the slave 
trade ought to be received, read, and respectfully considered by the representatives of the 
people ? 

II. Are you opposed to the annexation of Texas to this Union, under any circumstances, 
so long as slaves are h^ld therein '! 

III. Are you in favor of Congress exercising all the constitutional powers it possesses 
to abolish the internal slave trade between tlic States ? 



•"8 

IV. Are you in favor of iminediute legislation for the abolition of slavery in the Dis- 
tiict of Columbia '. 

Answer : — 1 am much engaged, and have no time to enter into an argument or explain 
at length my reasons for my opinions. I shall, therefore, content myself, for the present. 
by answering all your interrogatories in the affirmative, and leave for some future occa- 
sion a more extended discussion on the subject. 

MILL.\.RD FILLMORE 

So tliought ex-Chief Justice Greene C. Bronson, of New York, one of the most distin- 
.L;nishcd jurists in the country, and a leading Democrat of the Hard school. In a letter 
dated July 15, 1818, after declining .an invitation to attend a political meeting, he says : 

" Slavery cannot exist where there is no positive law to uphold it. It is nofr necessary 
that it should be forbidden ; it is enough that it is not specially authorized. If the owner 
of slaves removes with or sends them into any country, State, or Territory, where slavery 
does not exist by law, they will from that moment become free men, and will have as 
good a right to command the master, as he will have to command them. State laws 
Jiave no extra territorial authority ; and a law of Virginia which makes a man a slave 
there, cannot make liim a slave in New York, nor beyond the Eocky Mountains. 

" Entertaining no doubt upon that question, I can see no occasion for asking Congress 
to legislate against the extension of slavery mto freu lerritoiy, and, as a (juestion of poli- 
cy, I think it had better be let alone. If our soutliern brethren wish to carry their slaves 
to Oregon, New Mexico, or California, they will be under the necessitv of asking a law 
to warrant it ; and it will then be in time for the free States to resist tlie measure, as I 
cannot doubt they would, with unwavering firmness. 

"I would not needlessly move this question, as it is one of an exciting nature, which 
tends to sectional division, and may do us harm as a people. I would leave it to the 
slaveholding States to decide for themselves, and on their own responsibility, when, if ever, 
the matter shall be agitated in Congress. It may be that they will act wisely, and never 
move at all, especially as it seems pretty generally agreed that neither Oregon, New Mexi- 
co, nor California, are well adapted to slave labor. But if our southern brethren should 
make the question, we shall have no choice but to meet it, and then, whatever conse- 
quences may follow, I trust the people of the free States will give a united voice against 
allowing slavery on a single foot of soil where it is not now authorized by law. 
" I am, very respectful! v. your obedient servant, 

"GREENE C. BRONSON. 

"To Messrs. J. Cochrax and otliers, committee." 

It is true that we are not asked to enact laws to warrant the holding of slaA-es iji the 
Territories, but we are called upon to admit that slaves may be rightfully held in the 
Territories without law. The very question is made in substance, which Judge Bronson 
said would leave the people of the free States no choice but to meet it, whatever conse- 
<iuences might follow. 

So thought Colonel Benton in 185-1, when, speaking of the compromise of 1820, he said, 
tliat it "was but a continuation of the same national feeling, the same national princi- 
ples, that dictated (lie compromise extending the line to the territory which was then 
known as the Louisiana purchase."' But, sir, what need of my quoting authorities to 
prove the power and practice of ('ongress over the subject of slavery in the Territories ? 
It is a power that lias been exercised by (Congress from the adoption of the Constitution 
down to and including this very Congress. Sir, it is the grasping disposition of the South 
to extend slavery into the Territories, and with it to rule tlic government in the future, 
as it has done in the jmst, that we liave to meet; and while I regret the necessity to 
enter into such a conflict, now that the South has reopened it with renewed bitterness, 
sectionalism, and violence, I shall not shrink from any responsibility that it may impofie 
upon me in combatting it. 

Mr. Chairman, liaving presented such facts as I deem sufficient to establish tlie power 
of Congress over the subject of slavery in the Territories, I proceed to speak briefly of 
the opinions ami testimony of some of the fathers of the' republic, and the ablest and 
most chcrislied of oin- recent statesmen, against the evils of slavery and its further exten- 
Hion. In 178(i General Washington said : 

" I never mean, unUiss some particular circumstances should compel me to it, to possess 
.-another slave by purcliase, it being among my first wishes to sec some plan adopted by 
which slavery in this country may be abolished by law." 

Said Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia : 

" The whole commerce between maslir and slave is a continual exorcise of the most 
ii!>remittiug desi)o(ism on (he one part, and degrading submission on the other. " * 



'- * With what execration should the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one-half 
of the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots 
and these into enernies, destroys the morals of the ones part and the amor patrire of the 
other ! Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have removed their 
only firm basis — a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift 
of God — tliat they are not violated but by his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when 
I T^fkci that God is just and his justice cannot sleep forever." 

In addition to this, I hold in my hand a copy of a letter written by Mr. Jefferson, only 
six weeks before his death, in which he reiterates all of his former opinions and views of 
the subject of slavery, and declares, that, " living or dying, they will ever be in my most 
fervent prayers." I regard this letter as one of the most important and valuabJe of the 
papers left liy Jefferson. It reads as follows : 

MoNTiCELLO, May 20, 1826. 

Dear Sui : Persuasion, perseverance, and patience, are the best advocates on qtiestione 
depending upon the will of others. The revolution in public opinion which this case re- 
quires is not to be expected in a day, or perhaps in an age ; but time, which outlives all 
things, will outlive <Ais mZ also. My sentiments havebeen forty years before the public. Had I re- 
peaied them forty times, they u-mdd have only become the more stale and threadbare. Although I shall rwl 
live to see tlu^m consummated, they tvill not die with me ; but living or dying, they will ever be in my most 
fervent prayers. This is written for yourself, and not for the public, in compliance with your 
request for two lines of sentiment on the subject. 

Accept the assurance of my good will and respect. 

THOS. JEFFEESON. 

In Mr. Webster's celebrated Marshfield speech, in 1848, he said : 

"I feel that there is nothing unjust, nothing of which any honest man can complain, 
if he is intelligent, and I feel that there is nothing of which the civilized world, if they 
take notice of so humble an individual as myself, will reproach me when I saj-, as I said 
the other day, that I have made up my mind, for one, that under no circumstances will I 
consent to the extension of the area of slavery in the United States, or to the further in- 
crease of slave representation in the House of Representatives. ' ' 
And again, in 1850 : 

" Sir, wherever there is a particular good to be done— wherever there is a foot of land 
to be staid back from becoming slave territory — I am ready to assert the principle of the 
exclusion of slavery." 

Said the noble old statesman of Kentucky, Henry Clay, in 1850 : 

"I have said that I never could vote for it myself; and I repeat, that I never can and 
never will vote, arid no earthly poiver ever will make me vote, to spread slavery over terri- 
tory where it does not exist." 

With this declaration of Mr. Clay I take my stand. It was my privilege to be one of his 
humble but true supporters while living — even when Kentucky and the South forsook 
him in the National Convention at Philadelphia in 1848 ; and now that he is dead, I re- 
vere his memory, and will defend his illustrious fame. 

Mr. Chairman, having spoken of the causes and objects of the slave power in the pre- 
sent crisis, and given the action of Congress, the decisions of the courts, and the opinions 
and views of Jefferson, Webster, Clay, Fillmore, Bronson, and Benton, respecting the 
power of Congress over the institution of slavery, and its extension into the Territories, 
I beg the attention of the committee for a short time while I proceed to speak of the re- 
sults of the acquisition of territory by the United States, and the manner of its disposal : 

1. COST OF TERRITOKY PURCHASED. 

Territory of Louisiana (purchased of France in 1803) $15, 000, 000 

Interest paid. 8,327,353 

Florida (purchased of Spain) 5,000, 000 

Interest paid 1,430,000 

Texas (for boundary) 10,000, 00* 

Texas (for indemnity 10, 000, 00« 

Texas (for creditors, last Congress) 7, 750,000 

Indian expenses of all kinds, say 5,000,009 

To purchase navy, pay troops, &c. _ 5, 000, 000 

All other expenditures 3,000,000 

Expense of the Mexican war 217, 175,575 



10 

Soldiers' pensions, and bomity lands, &c., say $15,000,000 

Expenses of the Florida war, say 100 000. 000 

Soldiers' pensions, bounty lauds, &c. , say 7. OOO, 000 

To remove Indians, supjiress hotilitics, &c. , say 5, oOO. 000 

Paid by treaty, for New Mexico _. 15. ooO, 000 

Paid to extinguish Indian titles, say 100, 000 000 

Paid to Georgia 3.082,000 



832,764,928 

2. now HAS THE PURCHASED TERRITORY BEEN DIVIDED ? 

From the territory thus purchased, and paid for hy all the States, five neiv slave States have 
been admitted, having the following extent of territory and representation in Congress : 

States. Sq. miles. Scnaton. Reps. 

1 Louisiana 41,346 2 4 

2 Missouri 65^037 2 7 

3 Ai-kausas 52,191 2 2 

4 Florida 59,2GS 2 1 

5 Texas 325,369 2 2 

Five slave States. - 543,369 10 16 

The free States, if any, are yet to be admitted. 



. EXTENT, POPILATIOX, AND REPRESENTATION OF THE FREE A,ND SLAVE STATES 

Free States. Sq. miles. Population. Sen. Rep. 

1 New York 46,000 3,048,325 2 33 

2 Pennsylvania . 47,000 2.258,100 2 25 

3 Ohio 39,964 1^955,050 2 21 

4 Massac'husetts 7,250 985,450 2 11 

5 Indiana 33,809 977,154 2 11 

6 Illinos 55,409 846,034 2 9 

7 Mame 35,000 581,813 2 6 

8 New Jersey... 6,851 465,509 2 5 

9 Michigan 56,243 395,071 2 4 

10 Connecticut 4.750 363,099 2 4 

11 New Hampshire 8,030 317,456 2 3 

12 Vermont 8,000 313,402 2 3 

13 Wisconsin 53,924 304,756 2 3 

14 Iowa 50,914 191.881 2 2 

15 Khode Island 1,200 143,875 2 2 

Fifteen States 454,344 13,347,035 30 142 



(Omitting California, as before.) 

Slave States. Sq. miles, 

1 Virginia 61,352 

2 Kentucky 37. 680 

3 Tennessee 44, 000 

4 Missouri 65,037 

5 North Carolina 45, 500 

6 Georgia 58, 000 

7 Alabama - 50, 722 

8 Maryland 11^000 

9 Mississippi 47,151 

10 lyouisiana 41,346 

11 South Carolina 28,000 

12 Arkansas 52, 198 

13 Texas 325,520 

14 Delaware 2,120 

15 Florida 59,268 



Fifteen States.. 



928,894 



Population. 


Sen. 


Rep 


894,800 


2 


13 


761,413 


2 


10 


756,836 


2 


10 


592,004 


2 


7 


553. 028 


2 


8 


521,572 


2 


8 


426,514 


2 


7 


417,943 


2 


6 


295,718 


2 


5 


255.491 


2 


4 


274,563 


2 


6 


162, 189 


2 


2 


154,034 


2 


2 


71,169 


2 


1 


47,203 


2 


1 


6,184,404 


30 


90 



11 



POPULATIOX. 



Fifteen free States contain 13, 347, 035 

Fifteen slave States contain 6, 181 , 404 



TERRITORY. 



Fifteen slave States contain 928,894 square miles. 

Fifteen free States contain 454,344 do. 

Difference 474, 556 



The fifteen slave States have now above five times the extent of territory, according to 
population, that the free States have. Including slaves and all, tliey have about three 
times the territory of the free States, according to population. 

Nine slave States have been added, containing 722, 922 square miles. 

Six free States have been added, containing 200, 264 do. 

Difference 432.658 do. 



I have given the cost of the purchased territories, the disposition of the same, the 
population of the free and slave States, together with the extent of the entire territory 
embraced in said States in the Union, omitting California, as she was admitted without 
cost, and I may say l)y accident. It is also true she was admitted as a free State, but her 
Senators and Representatives soon learned in whose hands tlie power of this government 
is held, and have ever been, politically, the allies of the slave States ; California " forms 
no part of the territory where the struggle for and against the extension of slavery has 
been carried on. ' ' I uom' submit a statement of 

THE SLuWE POWER. 

stales. _ Slaveholders 

in each. 

Alabama 29, 295 

Arkansas 5,999 

Delaware _ gog 

Florida 3^250 

Georgia 38,456 

Kentucky 38.385 

Louisiana 20, 670 

Maryland. 16, 040 

Mississippi 23 116 

Missouri 19_ XS5 

North Carolina 28 303 

South Carolina _ _ 25 596 

Tennessee. 33^ 864 

Texas 7^747 

Virginia 55,063 

Total 346. 047 



" Thus it will be seen that the number of slave-owners, mcluding men, women, and chil- 
dren, is only about three hundred and forty-six thousand, and the free white population 
over six millions, in the slave States — or only about one in twenty of the white population 
in the slave States are slave-owners. Yet this small number, by a union of interest, and by 
the political importance given to slavery, rule these States absolutely and despotically ; the 
great majority of the people— a majority of nearly iwenty to one — ai-e never heard of, and 
have no more pov/er in those States, pdUkalhj, than the slaves its aristocratic rulers own ! 
This is truly astonishing ! But the condition of the general government is more so. The 
free population of the Union is about twenty millions. The slave-owners now number 
some three hundred and forty-six thousand. For the past sixty years their numbers would 
average from one hmidred and fifty to two hundred thousand ; yet the general govern- 
ment is in their hands, and has been for the past fifty years, when the majority against 
them in the Union is as sixti/ to one ; still they hold the power, and the government is di- 
rected and controlled by them, and has been almost ever since it has been in operation. 
And during all that time more than one-half of all the important offices of the government 
— and I believe nearly tico-thirds of those offices— have been filled by slaveholders, to the 
exclusion of the great mass of the people of the United States ! " ' 

The five purch;ised slave States of Florida, Texas, Arkansas. Louisiana, and Missouri, con- 
tain 543, 369 square miles. 

L.of C. 



12 

The whole fifteen free States contain 454, 344 square milcf?. 

The territory added to the slave States by purchase, is larger than all the fifteen free 
States hy 89, 025 square miles. 

This excess is a larger territory than is contained in seven of the free States. And this 
was all purchased to extend slavery, while the free States admitted have been formed out of 
territory belonging to the United States when the government was established, and to 
which the ordinance of Jefferson and of freedom, prohibiting slavery, was applied by the 
fathers of the republic. 

REPRESENTATION. 

"The fifteen free States have 13, 000, 000 of free white inhabitants, the fifteen slave States 
6, 000, 000, yet each have thirty senators.. True, the small States are entitled to two 
Senators each, as well as the larger ones ; but this number of slave States extended over 
a large territory, with a small population, makes the dispn-portioued representation of the 
two sections in the Senate too palpably unjust. In senators the slave States have, by this system, 
kept vp a representation, in the propiortion of two to one as against the free States. 

In the House the slave States have nmety members, representing 6, 000, 000 of popula- 
tion ; the free States one hundred and forty-two members, representing 13, 000, 000. Upon 
the same ratio with the slave States, the free States should have one. hmdrnl and ninety-five 
members—a loss to them of fifty -three in the popular branch of the government ; that in which 
the popular voice is to be heard, and the popular will expressed. 

South Carolina has six representatives, with a free white population of 274, 563. 

New Hampshire has three representative, with a free white population of 317,456. 

Vermont has three representatives, with a free white population of 313, 402. 

Vermont and New Hampshire, with a population of 630, 858, have six representatives. 

South Carolina has six also, with only 274, 563 ; less by 356, 295 — not one-half as much. 

At the ratio of South Carolina representation, these free States should have fourteen 
representatives instead of six. Is there not a wide difierence in ihe. political rights of these 
States ? 

Three Congressional districts in New York contain a larger free white population than 
the State of South Carolina ; yet this is the State that is going to force slavery into Kan- 
gas — the one that has so often complained of the hardships of remaining one of the United 
States, and threatened disimion!" 

Votes of eleven slaveholding Stales at the election of 1852, when Mr. Pierce was chosen, as contrasted 

with the vote of New York. 

1. Arkansas - 19,5i t 

2. Delaware. - - - 12,673 

3. Florida .-.- - - 7,193 

4. Georgia - SI) 365 

5. Maryland- - -- - 75, 153 

6. North Carolina - - - 78,861 

7. Texas - ---- 18,. 147 

8. Alabama. - - - 41, 919 

9. Louisiana - 35, ^02 

10. Mississippi - 44,424 

11. Virginia 129, 545 

Aggregate vote of eleven States 515, 159 

Vote of New York. 522,294 

Being 7. 135 votes more than all the others. 

These eleven States, (Virginia included,) that gave in 1852 a less vote than New York for 
President, have tjvmty-two Senators — New York haii only two ! 

Slaveholders have politicsil advantages denied to all other men ! A man who owns one 
thousand slaves has tiic same political power over his slave property as six hundred inhab- 
itants in the free States. His power is superior to that of most of the voters in a town 
of ordinary size. He has besides, individually, the same political power as the richest man 
ill a free State. This additional right— .six hundred strong— is solely hi consideration of 
his owning one thousand slaves as ])roix'rty ! 

Mr. Chairman, it will be seen by the foregoing statements that the cost of territory 
l)urchase(l is $832,764,928. Out of all this territory purchased, but one free State (Iowa) 
has been admitted. 

Mr. Clay a(huittcd this, in his speech made in the Senate in 1850. (See App<mdix to 
Olobc, vol. 22, page 126.) He said : 

"What have been the acriuisitions made by this country, and to what interests have 



13 

they conduced ? Florida, where slavery exists, has been introduced. All the most valu- 
able part of Louisiana has also been added to the extent and consideration of the slave- 
holding portion of the Union. 

"All Louisiana, with the exception of what lies north of 36° 30'. 

"All Texas; all the Territories which have been acquired by the government, during 
sixty years of the operation of that government, have been slave Territories ; theatres of 
slavery, with the exception I have mentioned lying north of 36° 30'." 

Not one inch of territory has ever been purchased or acquired of any foreign Power, 
since the constitution was adopted, at the instance of the free States, or which was in- 
tended for their benefit. 

Yet the free States have paid more than two-tliirds of the entire cost of all these acqui; 
sitions of territory, and the consequent expenditures since incurred. They have borne 
their full share in the wars which led to, or resulted from, these acquisitions, in the ex- 
penditure of money, and in the sacrifice of human life. 

Mr. Chairman, I have now finished this branch of my remarks, and proceed to consider, 
during the short time left me, the influences of slavery, as illustrated by the acts of the 
bogus legislature of K.ansas, the wrongs and oppression inflicted on the free-State people in 
Kansas, in this House, and in this city. 

Section 13, page 378, of the law.* passed by the pro-slavery bogus legislature of Kansas, 
excludes all but pro-slavery men from the jury-box in all cases relating directly or indi- 
rectly to slavery. Here it is : 

' ' No person who is consciaitiously opposed to tlie holding slaves, or who doe^ not admit the 
right to hold slaves in this Territory, shall be a juror in any cause in which the right to 
hold any person in slavery is involved, nor in any cause in which any injury done to, or 
committed by, any .slave is in issue, nor in any criminal proceeding for the violation of 
any law enacted for the protection of slave property', and for the punishment of aime com- 
mitted against the right to such propert}'." 

Again, the organic law organizing Kansas provides, in section 30, that the official oath- 
to be taken by the governor and secretary, the judges, " aTul aU other civil officers in said Ter- 
ritory,'' shall be "to support the constitution of the United States, and faithfully to dis- 
charge the duties of their respective offices." No more, no less. But the legislators of 
Kansas, with the same disregard of the Congressional law that marked their other acts, 
enacted another kind of official oath, on page 438 of their code, as follows : 

"Sec. I. All officers elected or appointed under any existing or subsequently-enacted 

laws of this Territorj^, shall take and subscribe the following oath of office : I, , do 

(?olemnly swear, upon the holy Evangelists of Almighty God, that I will support the con- 
stitution of the United States, and that I will support and sustain the provisions of an act 
entitled 'An act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas,' and the provisions 
of the law of the United States commonly known as the ' Fugitive Slave law, ' and faith- 
fully and impartially, and to the best of my ability, demean myself in the discharge of 
my duties in the office of , so help me God." 

You cannot fail to notice that, in this new oath, framed by the bogus legislature, the 
Fugitive Slave law is elevated to a " higher law" than the constitution ; for the officer is 
merely to ' ' support' ' the latter, but is required to swear that he will ' ' support and sus- 
tain" the other. 

On pages 604 and 605, chapter 151, will be found "An act to punish offences against 
slave property." It is in violation of the constitution of the United States. Section 12 
of that chapter reads : 

" If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or maintain that persons have not the 
right to hold slaves in this Territory, or shall introduce into this Territory, print, publish, write, 
circulate, or cause to be introduced into this Territory, written, printed, published, or 
circulated, in this Territory, any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet, or circular, containing any 
denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this Territory, such person shall be deemed 
GriLTY OF FELONY, and punished by imprisonment at hai'd labor for a term of not less than 
two years." 

Again, in violation of the constitution of the United States, "abridging the freedom of 
the press," is the 11th section of the same law in the Kansas code, page 605 : 

"If any person^n^, ivrite, introduce into, publish, or circulate, or cause to be brought into, 
printed, written, published, or circulated, or shall knowingly aid or assist in bringing into, 
printing, publishing, or circulating, within this Territory, any book, papa-, pamphlet, maga- 
zine, handbill, or circular, containing any statements, arguments, opinion, sentiment, doctrine, 
advice, or innuendo, calcidated to produce a disorderly, dangerous, or rebellious disaffection 
among the slaves in this Territory, or to induce such slaves to escape from the service of 



14 

their masters, or to resist their authority, he shall he guilty of felony, and he pnnished 
hy imprisonment and hard labor for a term not less than five years." 

And, mider this atrociously imconstitutional provision, a man who " brought into" the 
Territory of Kansas a copy of "Jefferson's Notes on Virginia," which contains an elo- 
quent and free-spoken condemnation of slavery, could be convicted by one of "Sheriff 
Jones's" juries as having introduced a " book" containing a "sentiment" "calculated" 
to make the slaves " disorderly," and sentenced to five years' hard labor. 

On page 325, section 12, of this same law there is a singular provision : 

" If the plaintiff be a negro or mulatto, he is required to prove his right to freedom." 

On page 2S2 is the following : 

"Sec. 11. Every free white male citizen of the United States, and every free male In- 
dian who is made a citizen by treaty or otherwise, and over the age of twenty-one years, 
who shall be an inhabitant of this Territory, and of the county or district in which he 
offers to vote, and shall have paid a Territorial tax, shall be a qualified elector for all 
elective offices ; and all Indians who are inhabitants of this Territory, and who may have 
adopted the customs of the white man, and who are liable to pay taxes, shall be deemed 
citizens : Provided, That no soldier, seaman, or marine, in the regular army or navy of 
the United States, shall be entitled to vote, by reason of being on service therein : And 
provided further, That no person who shall have been convicted of any violation of any 
provision of an act of Congress, entitled ' An act respecting fugitives from justice, and 
persons escaping from the service of their masters,' approved February 12, 179;> ; or of 
an act to amend and supplementary to said act, approved 18th September, 1850 : whether 
such conviction were by criminal proceeding or by civil action for the recovery of any 
penalty prescribed by either of said acts, in any courts of the United States, or of any 
State or Territory, of any offence deemed infamous, shall be entitled to vote at any elec- 
tion, or to hold any olfice in this Territory : And provided further^ That if any person ofi'er- 
ing to vote shall be challenged and required to take an oath or affirmation, to be admin- 
istered by one of tlie judges of the election, that he will sustain tlie provisions of the 
above-recited acts of Congress, and of the act entitled ' An act to organize the Territories 
of Nebraska and Kansas,' approved May 30, 185i, and shall refuse to take such oath or 
affirmation, the vote of such person shall be rejected." 

Merely being an "inhabitant," if the person is in favor of the Nebraska bill, and of 
the Fugitive Slave Law, qualifies him as a voter in all the elections of the Territory af- 
focting National or Territorial politics. The widest possible door is opened for the invaders to 
come over and carry each successive election as "inhabitants" for the time being of the 
Territory. But, turn to page 750, and notice the following provision (section 8) defining 
the qualifications of voters at the petty corporation elections of Leconipton : 

" All free white male citizens who have arrived to the full age of twenty-one years, 
and who shall be entitled to vote for Territorial officers, and who shall have res-ided within 
the city limits at least six months next preceding any election, and, moreover, who shall 
have paid a city tax or any city license according to ordinance, shall be eligible to vote at 
any ward or city election for officers of the cit}\" 

Being an inhabitant a day clothes a person with the right to vote for Delegates in Con- 
gress, and Representatives in the Legislature ; but to vote at an insignificant election, in 
comparison, six months' residence is required ! Am I wrong in judging that this invert- 
ing the usual ride, shows (hat Missourians are Avanted at the one election, but not at the 
other ? If any one deems this opinion unjust, let him study the following sections of the 
General Election Law, page 283 : 

" Sec. 19. Whenever any person shall offer to vote, he shall be tkesumed to he entitled to 
vote. 

"Seo. 20. Whenever any person offers to vote, his vote may be challenged by one of 
the judges, or hy any voter, and the jvulges of the election may examine him touching 
his rigiit to vote ; and if so examined, xo evidence to coxtuadict shall be received." 

These provisions explain themselves without comment. 

Section 5 of the act punishing oftences against slave property, page G04, enacts as fol- 
lows : 

"If any j)erson shall aid or a.isist in enticing, decoying, or persuading, or carrying away, 
or sending oat of this 'I'erritory, any slave belonging to another, with intent to procure or 
effect the freedom of such slave, or with inlmt to deprive the owner thereof of the ser- 
vices of sucli slave, he shall be adjiidgedguilty of grand larceny, and on conviction tliei'e- 
of sludl suffer death, or be impri.-.oued at hard labor for not less than ten j'cars." 

'lime will not permit me to go further into these Kansas laws, which Senator Clayton 



15 

declared to be an outrage upon " the rights of the people and the civilization of the age 
in which we live," while the " Detroit Free Press," the organ of General Cass, declared : 

• ' But the President should pause long before treating as ' treasonable insurrection ' the 
action of those inhabitants of Kansas who deny the binding authority of the Missouri- 
Kansas legislature ; for, in our humble opinion, a people that would not be inclined to 
rebel against the acts of a legislative body forced upon them hy fraud and violence, ivoidd he un- 
worthy lite name of American. If there if as ever justifiable cause for pojndar revolution against a usurp- 
ing aiul olmoxioiis government, that cause has existed in Kansas." 

But, sir, notwithstanding this appeal, the President of the United States has declared 
in his special message to Congress, in his proclamation, and in his orders to Governor 
Shannon and Colonel Sumner, through his Secretary of State and Secretary of War, that 
this code of Territorial laws shall be enforced by the full exercise of his power. He 
knows of their provisions. He knows these laws are in violation of the organic law 
organizing the Territory, which he signed. He knows they are in violation of the consti- 
tution of the United States, which he aud we have sworn to support ; and yet, on the 27th 
of January last, in his special message to Congress, he said : 

" Our system affords no justification of revolutionary act ; for the constitutional means 
of relieving the people of unjust admirdstrations and laws, by a change of public agents 
and by repeal, are amplk." 

Again: in his speech, as reported in the Union of June iOth, made to the Buchanan 
ratification meeting, who marched to the Wliite House, he coolly told them : 

"There ^vill be, on your part, no appeal to unworthy passions, no inflammatory calls 
for a second revolution, like those which are occasionally reported as coming from men 
who have received nothing at the hands of their government but protection and political 
blessings, no declaration of resistance to the laws of the land." 

But, Mr. Chairman, I will not stop to allude to the "protection and political blessings" 
which the people of Kansas have received from the "hands of their government." Let 
the free citizens, driven from Kansas with the sound of artillery ringing in their ears, 
and the light of their burning habitations fliLshing upon their eyes, as they turned to look 
back to the homes where they had been forced to leave their wives and children at the 
mercy of worse than barbarian foes, answer ! Let the innocent blood of Dow, Barbour, 
and Brown, and other murdered freemen, that has stained the soil of Kansas, rise up and 
bear witness against these false charges of the President of the United States ! 

The Democratic Convention at Cincinnati denounced ' ' treason and armed resistance to 
these laws" in a marked aud special manner. If there was any doubt as to the object of 
this declaration, the speech of the senator from Illinois, (Mr. Douglas,) at the ratification 
meeting in this city a short time since," removes it. The Washington Union of June 10th 
contained these extracts of that senator's speech : 

"The platform was equally explicit in reference to the didurhames in relation to the 
Territory of Kansas. It declared that treason was to be punished, and resistance to the 
laws was to be put down. " ^ * '■' 

" He rejoiced that the conA'ention, by a unanimous vote, had approved of the creed that 
law must and shall prevail. (Applause.) He rejoiced that we had a standard-bearer 
(Mr. Buchanan) with so much wisdom ancl nerve as to enforce a firm and undivided exe- 
cution of those laics." 

This, Mr. Chairman, leaves no room to doubt as to the course of policy to be pmsued by 
the Democratic party towards Kansas. I confess, sir, that on the announcement of the nomi- 
nation of Mr. Buchanan at Cincinnati, I entertained some hope that he would rise above 
the party shackles of the day, and use his power and influence in restoring peace and 
order in Kansas. 

But these hopes were of short duration. On the 9th of June last he made the follow- 
ing speech at Wheatland, which I copy entire from a leading Democratic paper published 
at Lancaster, Pennsylvania : 

Speech of Mr. Buchanan. 

"Lancaster, Pennstltania, Monday, June 9, 1856. 
"The Keystone Club of Philadelphia, accompanied by Beck's Brass Band, arrived here 
on Sunday, at 11 o'clock a. m., and this morning paid a visit to the Hon. James 
Buchanan, at Wheatland, accompanied by a procession of citizens to the number of two 
or three hundred. Upon their arrival at Wheatland, WiUiam B. Rankm, esq., president 
of the club, was introduced to Mr. Buchanan, and said that on behalf of the Keystone 



16 

Club, over which he had the honor of presiding, he congratulated him as the nation's 
choice, adding that tlie work which was but begun they intended to carry on until victory- 
should crown their efforts. Mr. Buchanan replied as follows : 

" Ge-ntlemejv of the Keystone Club : I give you a most hearty and warm welcome to my 
abode. I congratulate you, not upon my nomination, but upon the glorious privilege of 
being citizens of our great republic. Your superiority over the people of other countries 
has been fully demonstrated by the conduct of a vast concourse assembled during the past 
week at Cincinnati. Upon any similar occasion in Europe, the voluntary expression of 
the people would have been drowned in maitial music, and their actions controlled by an 
army with banners. How unlike the spectacle at Cincinnati, where delegates from the 
people of the different States met in convention under protection of the constitution and 
laws, and harmoniously deliberated upon subjects of vital importance to the country. 
Gentlemen, two weeks since I should have made you a longer speech, but now I have 
been placed ?/;?o?i a platfonn of which I most heartily approve , and that can speak for me. Being 
the representative of the great Democratic parti/, and not simply James Buchanan, I must square my 
conduct according to the platforjn of that party, and insert no neio plank, nor take one from it. That 
platform is sufficiently broad and national for the whole Democratic party. This glorioiis party, 
now more than ever, has demonstrated that it is the true conservative party of the con- 
stitution and of the Union. 

"Philadelphia, Monday, June 9, P. M. 
"The Keystone Club arrived in this city this evening. They were met at West Phila- 
delphia by a deputation of citizens, who, with music, escorted them through the principal 
streets, the procession increasing in numbers until the ranks numbered 2,000. A salute 
of 50 guns was fired." 

Again, in his speech at Baltimore, on the occasion of his recent public reception in that 
city, he said : 

"We have already reached and almost passed the dangerous crisis on the subject of 
domestic slavery. The volcano is nearly exhausted. The material for continued agita- 
tion no longer exists. And why ? Because I hold it to be quite impossible that any con- 
siderable portion of our people can long continue to contest the elementary republican 
principles recognised in the Territorial legislation of Congress." 

Well, sir, here we have him square on the Cincinnati platform ; no longer James 
Buchanan, but merged into and "square" to this platform, which declares : " the Ameri- 
can Democracy recognise and adopt the principles contained in the organic laws establish- 
ing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska as embwlying the only sound and safe solu- 
tion of the slavery question ; that this was the basi^ of the Compromise of 1850." I have 
ghown what the organic laws establishing these Territories were. I have also shown th& 
violation of them by the bogus legislature of Kansas, and their approval by the Presi- 
dent, and now by the Democratic Cincinnati Convention. I have also shown the declara- 
tion and pledge of the senators and representatives in Congress in 1850, and its full en- 
dorsement by the President in bis first annual message to Congress in 1853. I have also 
shown the faithlessness in the President and his supporters in adhering to these pledges. 
I have also shown the repudiation of all these professions and pledges by the President 
and his supporters, and with this expose I leave him and them to reflect on their incon- 
sistency and wrong which he and they have inflicted on the rights of the people and the 
stability of the institutions of the country. 

Mr. Chairman, in passing to the consideration of other topics, I deem it proper to call 
the attention of the House to the state of affairs in the 8tate of California, and the con- 
duct of the President of the United States in relation to the same. It is as well known 
as it is disgraceful to the nation, tliat a state of insubordination and anarchy has existed 
in that sovereign State fijr months, and tliat, instead of the laws of that State, or of 
the United States, being enforced there, a self-constituted committee has usurped the 
liberties of the peoi)le, set aside the ministers of the law, and taken the administration 
and the execution of their self-enacted laws into their own hands. The legally constituted 
authority of that State, by their governor, has applied to the President of the United 
States for aid to enforce the laws and restore order in California ; but the appeal has been 
denied, and no one can now tell when order and the majesty of the law will again be 
restored in that unfortunate State. I <!nter into no speculation as to who is right or 
wrong for the existing state of tilings in California, or tipon the motives of th(! President 
anil liis adviscis in refusing aid to the constituted autliorities of that State to put down 
till; insurrectionists, and to restore peace and order. But, I wish to say that his conduct 
in tills ease is very unlilvo that which he has caused to be enforced on the free-State men 
in the infant Territory of Kansas, in the execution of the bogus and unconstitutional 
laws passed by the bogus and illegal legislature of that Territory. 



IT 

Mr. Cliainnan, I now beg the attention of the committee to the consideration uf the 

ARROGANCE AND SECTIONAL INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY. 

During the long contest, at the commencement of the present session of Congress, for 
tlie election of Speaker, a leading and distinguished member from tlie State of Alabama 
proclaimed : ' ' Members from tlie North seem to think that the reason why the South 
has had so large a share in our governmental operations, lies in the institution of slavery. 
I tell them they are mistaken ; it lies behind that institution. It is to be found in the 
administrative faculty belonging to the early settlers of the South — the Cavaliers and 
Huguenots — and wuicii their descendants have inherited." Well, sir, I rejoice in the 
boldness of this boast of superiority of birth and blood. I respect and honor the frank 
expression of one's sentiments as thus given ; but I tell the gentleman that he is mistaken 
in the true character of the people of the North. Ti-ue, they have not enjoyed the ad- 
vantage of experience that the people of the South have in the governmental affairs of 
the government, but this is solely owing to the sectional and aggressive demands of the 
slave power. But, sir, the people of the North will not longer remain under this 
vain and boasting charge ; they intend to demand and expect to receive and take their 
fair and just proportion of the responsibilities in the administration of this government. 
They commenced this policy in the election of Speaker Banks, without, I regret to say, 
the aid of a single vote from a slave State. Yet such is the power of slavery that even 
representatives have to bow to its demands and behests, or to go into private life. 

If the people of the North are true to themselves, true to the best interests of the 
country, true to the Constitution and Union, as I know them to be, they will take the 
affairs of this government into their own hands on the 4th of March next ; and then the 
gentleman from Alabama will have an opportunity of witnessing the honor, capacity, and 
justice of the people of the North to administer the affairs of the government. 

I know, Mr. Chairman, that the South sneer at the people of the North, and proclaim 
that, although they are the descendants of the Puritans of Plymouth Eock, and admit 
that the sods of Lexington, and Concord, and Bunker Hill, and Saratoga, and Monmouth, 
and Trenton, and Valley Forge, are their forefathers' sepulchres, in fighting the battles 
and in achieving the liberties of the country ; yet they are only considered an industrious 
and money -making people, disqualified for administrative positions— fit subjects, I suppose 
they think, to be the hewers of wood and the drawers of water for the South. 

Again: the honorable gentleman from Alabama continues: "Why, sir, I might ask, 
what great sentiment, what gi-eat governmental principle, originated at the North?" I 
answer the gentleman's question with great pleasure and satisfaction. Tlie great " sen- 
timent" of the North is freedom, and their "governmental principle" progress. With 
these principles she started in the great race on this continent. In the very year the 
Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, slaves landed in Virginia ; and, in the lan- 
guage of the eloquent gentleman from Massachusetts, "freedom has gone on, trampling 
down barbarism, and planting States — building the symbols of its faith by every lake, 
and every river, until now the sons of the Pilgrims stand by the shores of the Pacific. 
Slavery has also made its way toward the setting sun. It has reached the PJo Grande on 
the south ; and the groans of its victims, and the clank of its chains, may be heard as it 
slowly ascends the western tributaries of the Mississippi river. Freedom has left the 
land bespangled with free schools, and filled the whole heavens with the shining towers 
of religion and civilization. Slavery has left desolation, ignorance, and death, in its 
path. When we look at these things ; when we see what the country would have been 
had freedom been given to the Territories ; when we think what it would have been but 
for this blight in the bosom of the country ; that the whole South — that fair land God has 
blessed so much — would have been covered with cities, and villages, and railroads, and 
that in the country, in the place of twenty-five millions of people, thirty-five millions 
would have hailed the rising morn exulting in republican liberty ; — when we think of 
these things, how must every honest man — how must eveiyman with brains in his head, 
or heart in his bosom — regret that the policy of old Virginia, in her better days, did not 
become the animating policy of this expanding republic!" 

FREEDOM and PROGRESS, 

Sir, that develops the material resources of the country that builds railroads and canals; 
that protects and respects the labor of every citizen of the country, that protects 
the rights of every American citizen, at home and abroad ; that encourages commerce, 
that twin-sister of civilization, that encourages emigration, that contributes " labor, cap- 
ital, art, valor, and enterprise, to perfect and embellish our ever-widening empire." 
These, sir, are the aims and trophies of freedom and progress. Now, sir, may I not a;-'- 



18 

What are the airns and trophies of the institution of slavery ? is it not scciional and 
(Kjf/ressive ? Is it not a cruel, relentless tyranny ? Does it not legalize "chattei, slavery" — 
that "execrable commerce," as Jefferson called it, " that makes merchandise of immor- 
tality ; that smites the earth with barrenness ; that blasts the human intellect, and blights 
the human heart ; that maddens the human brain, and crushes the human soul ; that 
crime which puts out the light and hushes the sweet voices of home, shatters its altars 
and scatters darkness and desolation over its hearthstone ; that system which recog- 
nises the tearing away of joyful children from their mothers' arms, and selling them 
into eternal exile without having anything to say in the premises ; that system 
which dooms men to live without knowledge, to toil without reward, to die without 
hope ; that system which sends little children to the shambles;" and, let me add, that 
system, which custom sanctions, of fathers selling their own children into slavery. 

Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, I charge that slavery is not only sectional and aggressive, 
but that its social influence is corrupt and dangerous to the best interests of the community in ichich 
it exists. Why, sir, I have but to call the attention of the committee to what has 
transpired in this House and in this city since the commencement of the present 
session of Congress to establish these charges to the conviction of every candid and im- 
partial mind. In this House there are three political parties — Democratic, Kepublican, 
and American. At the congressional caucus of the Democratic party a resolution was 
adopted denouncing the American i^arty, and proclaiming its adherence to the Kansas 
and Nebraska act. Well, sir, you and this House and the country know the long and 
bitter struggle that ensued before the election of a Speaker ; the denunciations that were 
uttered by the Democrats against the Americans as well as the llepublicans ; and yet, sir, 
notwithstanding all this, and the further consideration, too, that many members of the 
American party south were anti-Nebraska men, and some of them opponents of it in the 
last Congress, yet, on the fmal vote, every member of that party present from the South 
voted for the Democratic nominee, except two members, (Mr. Cullen and Mr. Davis,) 
who voted for the American candidate. Why, sir, let me ask, was this sectional vote 
given ? Was it not in consequence of the sectionalism of slavery ? 

Again : WTien the telegraph wires, day after day, brought the tidings of the invasion of 
Kansas by the border ruffians from the State of Missouri, and the reign of anarchy and 
civil war in the Territory of Kansas, a proposition was introduced by the gentleman from 
Indiana [Mr. Duxx] appointing a committee from this House to go to Kansas and investi- 
gate the alleged frauds in that Territory. Well, sir, on this fair, just, and peaceful pro- 
position — a proposition, in my opinion, that saved the lives and property of hundreds and 
thousands of the people of that unfortunate Territory — not a man voted for it from 
a slave S;ate. 

Aagain : Wlien the gentleman from Maine [Mr. Kxowltox] offered a resolution of in- 
quiry respecting the murder of Thomas Keating, the Irish waiter at Willard's, by Mr. 
Herbert, a member of this House, every member from the slave States, except one, voted 
against it, as did every member present of the Democratic party, except two, (Mr. Kelly 
and Mr. Williams.) Ayes 70, nays 79, was the vote. 

Is slavery not sectional and aggressive ? Or is not the murder of a 2:>oor Irish ivaUer worth investigating 9 

Again : On the vote admitting Mr. Aucher, of Illinois, to his seat, on the report of the 
Committee on Elections, every member present and voting from the slave States voted 
against his admission. Archer is an American Republican. 

Again : On the vote to expel the Hon. Preston S. Brooks and to censure the Hon. Law- 
rence M. Keiit, members of this House from the State of South Carolina, for the brutal 
and murderous assault on the Hon. Charles Sujener, a senator from the State of Massa- 
chusetts, for words spoken in debate, in the Senate of the United States, and in reply to 
Senator Butler, of South Carolina, and of the institution of human slavery in the slave 
States, and not for any act done, or word spoken by that senator, to or reflecting on eiliier 
of the members referred to a))ove, and which assault was proved to have well nigh de- 
titroyed that senator's life, every member present and voting from the slave States, except one iii each 
case, voted against expdUng Brooks and censuring Kcitt ! 

Well, sir, this is not all of this case. The member from South Carolina (Mr. Brooks) 
has since said to this House. 

" I went to work very deliberately, as I am charged— and this is admitted— and specu- 
lated somewhat as to whether I should employ a horse-whip or cowhide ; but, knowing 
that the Senator was my superior in strength, it occurred to me that he might wrest it 
from my hand, and then— for I never attempt any thing I do not perform— I might have 
been compelled to do that which I would have regretted the balance of my natural life." 

Now, sir, without some further explanations there might be some doubt as to what the 
member refers to in saying, " I might liavc been compelled to do that which I would 
liave regretted the balance of my natural life." I am credibly informed as to what he 



19 

did mean; and it is this, as stated by that member to^the honorable gentleman from Mas- 
sachusetts, (M. Dewitt :) that if Senator Sumner had "made an apparent successful defence 
he would have shot him dead ! and for the crime and damage of this unexampled assault 
in the history of our country, Judge Crawford, of the criminal court of the District of 
Columbia, fined the member from South Carolina the enormous sum of S300 ! 

Well, sir, every member present and voting from the slave States, except one in each 
case, voted against expelling Bkooks and censurmg Keitt ! 

Is there no power and influence of the sectionalism of slavery in this ? 

Again : on the bill introduced by the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Dunn) for restoring 
the "Missouri Compromise act, " and for liberating the free-State men in Kansas from 
their unlawful imprisonment, and for rc-organizing the Territorial government of Kansas, 
every reiDresentative present and voting from the slave States voted against it. 

Again : On the report of the Committee on Elections against the right of "Whitfield, 
the delegate from Kansas, to his seat, on proof of the most reliable and unquestioned 
character, every representative present and voting from the slave States voted in his 
favor. I make no comments on this extraordinary and sectional vote, but refer you to 
the testimony and report of your committee sent to Kansas to investigate this and other 
cases of fraud. 

This, Mr. Chairman, brings me down to the consideration of 

THE SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF SL.WERY, AND ITS CORRUPT AND DANGEROUS INFLUENCES TO THE COil- 

SfUNITT WHERE IT EXISTS. 

Soon after the commencement of the present session of Congress, and before the elec- 
tion of Speaker, a member of this House (Mr. Bust) assaulted and beat Horace Greeley 
with a cane. A few days later, another member of this House (ex-Governor Smith, of 
Virginia) had a street fight with the editor of the Star, (Mr. Wallach.) Next in order is 
the murder of Keating by a member of this House, (Mr. Herbert,) and the assault of 
Sumner by Messrs. Brooks and Keitt, of which I have heretofore spoken. 

TRIAL OF HERBERT FOR THE MURDER OF KEATING. 

* 

Mr. Chairman, I have but a few words more to say on these, to me, unpleasant sub- 
jects. But duty, as well as humanity, demands that something should be said respecting 
the murder of Thomas Keating, the Irish waiter at Willard's hotel, by the member from 
California, (Mr. Herbert,) and the extraordinary circumstances and facts connected with 
the action of Judge Crawford, District Attorney Key, and Marshal Hoover, concerning the 
same. 

The murder was committed in the city of the Capital of the nation by a representative 
of the American Congress, and under circumstances that has caused the attention of every 
citizen of the country to it, and the eyes of the civilized world upon it, in consequence of 
the place where it occurred, and the oflicial position of the man who perpetrated the act. 

The magistrates who made the preliminary examination of the killing of Keating, issued 
a warrant to commit Herbert to await his trial for murder. Judge Crawford admitted 
him to bail. The district attorney, Mr. Key, did not attend the first examination before 
Judge Crawford, or make any effort to resist Herbert's application for the privilege of 
being admitted to bail. On tlie morning when Judge Crawford made his order admitting 
Herbert to bail, the district attorney was present, but said nothing. 

Mr. Chairman, it is well known that the district attorney, Mr. Key, is a warm per- 
sonal, political, and bosom friend of Mr. Herbert ; that he refused to allow the friends of 
Keating to employ any associate counsel to aid in the trial rmtil the day before the com- 
mencement of the first trial ; that he then said to the friends of Keating that he would 
make application to the court for a postponement of the trial for one day to enable them 
to prociu'e an associate counsel to aid him on the trial, but that he omitted to make the 
application to the coirrt. On the trial of the case the district attorney abandoned the 
charge of murder, and only asked a conviction for manslaughter. It was under the legal 
advice and direction of tliis same district attorney that the grand jurors found an indict- 
ment for murder. Tire motive for this particular form of indictment may not be certain, 
but its eftect and consequences were unmistakable. The indictment being for murder, 
gave the defendant the right of peremptorily challenging thirty-six jurors. The power 
to set aside that number without assigning any reason, in connexion with the character 
of the whole body of the jurors summoned in by the marshal, really gave to the member 
from California, Mr. Herbert, the selection of the jury who were to decide upon his fate. 
Did the district altomei/ foresee, ar did he intend, precisely this result ? 

It is further said that Marshal Hoover, who has power to summon jurors at discretion 
for the criminal court of this District, is also a devoted personal and political friend, and 



20 

heretofore a frequent visiter of the meraher from California. It is further cliar^ed, that tlie 
bail of Herbert, before his indictment for the murder of Keating, is a brother of postmaster 
Berret, of the city post-office, and an officer or subordinate in one of the departments. 

It is further charged, that the member from California (Mr. Herbert) is a friend of the 
admmistration ; that he was a delegate to the National Democratic Cincinnati Convention; 
that district attorney Key, marshal Hoover, and Mr. Berret, received their respective 
offices by appointments from the President and his .administration. 

Well, sir, on submitting the charge to the jury on the first trial, Judge Crawford, at the 
instance and request of the coimsel of the prisoner, laid down tlic following principle of 
law for the guidance of the jmy, namely': 

"Mr. Bradley asked the "court to instruct the jury upon the points of law, and Mr. 
Walker immediately rose with a set of instructions framed by the defence, which he asked 
should be given to the jury. These Mr. Walker proceeded to read, and then passed them 
up to Judge Crawford, who promptly reported them to the jury as the instructions of the 
court. 

" These instructions are as follows : 

" ' 1st. If a sudden alfray arose lictween the accused and the deceased, and afterwards 
several other persons interfered to assist the deceased, and by these assailants the defendant 
was borne down and beaten, and had reason to believe that he was in imminent danger of 
great bodily hami, from which he could not safely escape, and while in this i^osition fired 
the pistol by which the deceased was killed, it was in judgment of law a case of excusable 
homicide, and it is immaterial, in the absence of ]iremeditation and malice, by whom the 
affi'ay was commenced. And it is also not material that the accused might have escaped 
before the imminent peril came upon him, if at the time the peril came he had reason to 
believe himself in imminent peril of life, or of great bodily harm, and when he fired the 
pistol he could not safely escape. 

' ' ' 2d. To have authorized Herbert to take the life of Keating, the necessity for doing so 
need not be acliutl ; for if the circumstances were such as to impress his (Herbert's) mind 
with the reasonable belief that such necessity was impending, it is sufficient. 

" ' 3d. If the jury believe, from the evidence, that at the time the pistol was discharged 
Herbert was being pressed by superior numbers, and was in danger of death or of serious 
bodily harm, and from which he could not safely escape, he was justified in taking life. 

" ' 4th. If the jury entertain reasonable doubts as to any material fact necessary to make 
out the case for the government, they must give the benefit to the defendant.' " 

Well, Mr. Chairman, I am no lawyer ; but if this is law in the criminal court in the 
city of Washington, I do not consider it justice, and I intend, the first opportunity that 
offers, to offer a resolution which I have drawn up, directing the Judiciary Committee to 
bring in a bill, before the end of this session, to reorganize or abolish the criminal court 
in the District of Columbia. 

The result of the first trial was a disagreement of the jury, and a second trial has since 
been had, at which I am reliably informed that jurors were swobn and served, who stated 
to the court that they had " formed and had expressed, and still entertained opinions re- 
specting the guOt or innocence of the accused." This jury acquitted the member from 
California, as might be expected they would, after such acts of the court. This ends my 
brief history of this most extraordinary trial. In passing, Mr. Chairman, I beg to say a 
word or two to the people of Washington. If such acts of violence and such decisions of 
courts and verdicts of juries are to be continued, the day is not far distant when a re- 
moval of the capital of this nation will be demanded and consummated by the people of 
the United States. 

Again : Even in the State of old Virginia, the mother of Presidents — two citizens — 
Mr. Underwood and his associate delegate to the National Republican Convention, held 
in Philadelphia on the 17th of June last — have been compelled to flee from that State to 
avoid acts of violence upon them, for no other reason that I have lieard given, than for 
simply attending said convention and giving uttcn-anco to their sentiments on the polit- 
ical topics of the day. And yet, sir, pul)lic meetings have lieen held in that State, and 
resolutions adopted, giving notice to these gentlemen that they must leave the State. I 
need not say more ; the facts are recent and are before the country. 

Again, sir : We hear of and see letters from some of the most leading and controlling 
men ii) the slave States — men who have heretofore been Whigs or Americans — coming out 
in favor of the election of James Buchanan for tlie Presidency. Among the most re- 
(•eiit are Senators Pratt and Piarce of Maryland, both heretofore leading Whigs ; and to- 
night, sir, we have heard from the lijis of the; distinguislu'd meml)er from Alabama. [Mr. 
WALiiEU,] that he, too, follows in tii(! train of the supporters of B\iclianan, an<l for the 
same principal reasons assigned by the Senators from Maryland, namely, the safety oj 
the instilulion of slaren/ in the handt of the Dimocratic jmrty : a gentleman, allow me 



21 

to say, who, as it is well known, has heretofore acted with and been a member of the 
American party; and he has told us to-night that he was a delegate to the National Ame- 
rican Convention that nominated Fillmore and Donaldson. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I well 
recollect of the prominent part that gentleman took in that Convention, and of the fact 
of his being a prominent candidate, and warmly supported by delegates in that Conven- 
tion for the nomination of Vice-President : a gentleman, let me add, who has recently 
distinguished himself as the counsel of the member from California, [Mr. Herbert,] on the 
trial of that member for the murder of Thomas Keating, the Irish waiter at Willard's 
hotel, to which I have heretofore referred. Well, sir, he has gone, and is now in the full 
embrace of the Democratic part}'. 

Is there no scdional influence in the institution of human slavery ? 

THE REMEDY. 

_ The remedy for the present unhappy state of affairs existing between the different sec- 
tions of the country, is in a return to the principles of the early fathers of the Kepublic 
in the admission of Kansas as a free State, for which we have precedents in the admission 
of Michigan and California, for which we have the approval of Judge McLean, who said in 
his letter to Chief Justice Hernblower, of New Jersey, on the 6th of June last, "I have 
no hesitation in saying that the immediate admission of Kansas as a State into the Union, 
under the constitution already formed, commends itself to me as a measure of sound 
policy, and well calculated to bring peace to the Territory and to the country." 

Or, sir, if the Senate will pass the bill sent to it restoring the Mi-ssouri restriction, which 
protects the Territory to freedom north of 36^ 30' north latitude forever, and Uberates the 
freemen in Kansas that are unlawfully imprisoned there, and provides for the reorganiza- 
tion of the Territory until it is admitted into the Union as a State. Are not these just, rea- 
sonable, and easy remedies— the true ones to restore peace and tranquillity in Kansas and 
throughout the country ? 

THE ISSUE. 

Kansas never should and never can be admitted as a slave State. The South should not 
attempt to increase the evils that are upon us, and delay action in the vain hope of suc- 
cess. The great question now is, the extension or non-extension of slavery into free ter- 
ritory. On this question there are but two parties — those who are tor it "and those who 
are against it. It is the great question before which all others sink into insignificance. 
It is not an unimportant question of the day, but it concerns the stability of the Union, 
the preservation of the constitution— that instrument of universal freedom, contemplated 
as such by its framers, and interpreted as such by all men South and North until within a 
few years past. It has ever been considered a chart of freedom, established to secure this 
]ioon ; giving liberty to the States to do what they think to be proper within their own 
limits, as to them shall seem to be right and just, but claiming no right and conceding 
no right to them to carry their own peculiar institutions beyond the limitations conferred 
by the sovereignty of States. The North asks for nothing more— she cannot and will not 
consent to anything less. 

How momentous tlie issue ! How just and righteous the cause ! How certain the re- 
sult if the friends of freedom stand firm, as I have no doubt they will. Let the friend.s, 
then, of Free Kansas plant themselves firmly and unitedly on the old Jeflersonian plat- 
form of Liberty, the Constitution-, the Union, the Sovereignty of the States, and their 
full and undisturbed reserved rights. It is on this platform that I plant myself in the 
approaching Presidential contest. I am for the fullest and amplest justice to the South, 
and claim the same for the North. Party ties with me are nothing compared with duty. 
Yet I know full well that it requires some effort to break loose from our party associations ; 
but I trust where duty points the way, we shall be found willing followers. For one, I 
know no party so dear to me as my country, no obligation so binding but to put forth 
all the energy, strength, and power that God has given me to preserve it. If we but do 
this, when the evening of life is upon us— and it will soon overtake us all — and the sands 
of this life fast washing away, it will be a consoling thought to be able to cast our 
memories back to the part we took in this crisis of our country's cause ! 




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